Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: Every day, throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, educators and school leaders work to ensure that all students have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education. As a part of that work, educators strive to meet the individual needs of all students entrusted to their care, and teachers work to create educational environments where all students thrive. The Virginia Department of Education (the “Department”) recognizes that each child is a unique individual with distinctive abilities and characteristics that should be valued and respected. All students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, or bullying. The Department supports efforts to protect and encourage respect for all students. Thus, we have a collective responsibility to address topics such as the treatment of transgender students with necessary compassion and respect for all students. The Department also fully acknowledges the rights of parents to exercise their fundamental rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. The Code of Virginia reaffirms the rights of parents to determine how their children will be raised and educated. Empowering parents is not only a fundamental right, but it is essential to improving outcomes for all children in Virginia. The Department is mindful of constitutional protections that prohibit governmental entities from requiring individuals to adhere to or adopt a particular ideological belief. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom and prohibits the government from compelling speech that is contrary to an individual’s personal or religious beliefs. The Department embarked on a thorough review of the Model Policies Guidance adopted on March 4, 2021 (the “2021 Model Policies”). The 2021 Model Policies promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools. The 2021 Model Policies also disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students. With the publication of these 2022 Model Policies (the “2022 Model Policies”), the Department hereby withdraws the 2021 Model Policies, which shall have no further force and effect. The Department issues the 2022 Model Policies to provide clear, accurate, and useful guidance to Virginia school boards that align with statutory provisions governing the Model Policies. See Code of Virginia, § 22.1-23.3 (the “Act”). Significantly, the 2022 Model Policies also consider over 9,000 comments submitted to the Department during the public comment period for the 2021 Model Policies.

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9/28/22 9:23 pm

Commenter: Cam Alexander

Please read if you support this

As a high schooler, a trans person, and a friend of some Virginia public school students, I strongly oppose this policy. Preventing students from identifying how they wish - not by making permanent changes, but by simply being referred to with their correct pronouns - does nothing to benefit the students it claims to protect. Instead, it causes more problems, making trans and non binary students repress their identities at school or run the risk of being outed to possibly unsupportive parents. To say that allowing students to be referred to with their preferred pronouns is “pushing ideology” is wrong. Students should not be prevented from expressing themselves in a non-disruptive way, and asking teachers to use the correct pronouns does nothing to harm anyone. For the parents who say that this means students will make “big changes” that will affect their entire lives, this is completely false. A simple request of being referred to differently is not a permanent change and can just as easily. It’s about as big a change as asking to be called a nickname rather than your full name. Allowing students to be referred to properly without notifying parents does no harm; the greatest damage it can cause is minor confusion. Preventing students from being themselves, by denying them the ability to express their own identities, only isolates trans students and causes the feelings of uneasiness that you claim to protect them from.

I put a lot of time into writing this, so I hope I got through to at least someone. Even if I can’t change anyone’s mind, I want people to hear perspectives from a trans student.

CommentID: 179423